Improved composition amalgam for filling teeth



cited tates 1 Letters Patent No. 104,87

9, dated June 28, 1870.

IMPROVED COMPOSITION AMALG-AMQ POR FILLING TEETH.

, The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making par!- ofthe same.

To all persons to whom these presents may come:

Be it known that I, LUKE A. PLUMB, of Boston, of the county. of Suffolkand State of Massachusetts, have invented a new or improved Compositionor Amalgam, to be used .for the purpose of preventing decay in, or forfilling, orifices in teeth; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full and exact description of the same.

The amalgam now used by dentists for the above purpose is composed oftin, silver, and mercury, com bined in or about in equal parts, whichhas, however, many objectionable features, which the new amalgamobviates.

The newly compounded amalgam is composed of about twenty parts, byweight, of refined nickel, twenty-five parts Banca' tin, and forty-fiveparts silver, which ingredients are to be fused, and chemically unitedin a crucible. When well fused and mixed the contents of the crucibleare to be cast into the form of an ingot or oblong bar. This bar, whencold, is to be adjusted in a lathe, and, by a tool, cut into very thinshavings, which shavings will then be ready to be mixed with, anddissolved by, a sufiicient amount of mercury to constitute acrystallizing cement or amalgam, which, after being washed inninety-five per cent.

alcohol, and dried by a gentle heat, will be ready for tal cavity, inwhich it will be an efinsertion in a den docmnposition of fectual meansof arresting further become as hard the tooth, as it will, in .a fewhours, and as durable as the tooth itself.

The amalgam, as heretofore made and used by dentists, rapidly undergoesoxidation when exposed to the acids incident to the mouth, and has astrong tendency to contract in the act of crystallization, thusadmitting moisturebetwcen it and the interior surface of the dentalcavity; is not sufiiciently hard to withstand the friction incident tomastication, and oxidizes upon surface, theoxide operating to hlackenthe body oi the tooth, and also to injure, ifnot to destroy, 1tsvascularstructure. By virtue of the extreme hardness, brightness, and finenessof refined niclcehnvh'en compounded into the new amalgam, the latter isless liable to be affected by-oxidation, contraction, and friction thanthe old amalgam in common use.

I make no claim to a composition 0 tin, silver, and mercury asheretofore used.

What I do claim as my invention is-- My'new composition or amalgam, madeof the'corn-' bination of nickel and other ingredients, as hereinheforeexplained. I

LUKE A. PLUMB.

Witnesses R. H. EDDY, J. R. Snow.

r amalgam of

